The night went through like a shot, bringing his fair share of drinks, dancing, phone numbers and kissing, yes, kissing… I met this incredible dark fizzy hair primary school teacher, Valerie, who was very taken by me and my mix of French Caribbean accent, and “Moss Side” slangs… An heritage coming from my Jamaican friends back in Manchester I suppose.
I went back to the hotel that night, alone, and couldn't sleep until 9h, something to do with the fact that I still couldn't believe that I was in the country of my dreams. So much had happened in 24 hours. My new friend Fritz was busy the next few days, so I decided to visit the town on my own, as planned. I decided that my first port of call should be the “Corcovado”, the statue of Christ on top of the mountain. I took a bus behind my hotel, to do the 35 min drive to the place, and would you believe it, it cost me something like 17 pence… Anyway, as I got there, I met this lovely Peruvian couple on their way to the landmark as well. To get to the top of the mountain, you have two options, either the little funicular or an approved governmental taxi. The second one is slightly expensive, 7£ instead of £1.50, but at least you have it for the whole day, and you can share it, which we done. It took us about one hour to get to the top, but when you are there, the view is just magnificent. The statue embraces the whole city, you can see as far as 150 km on 360 degree, so much so that you can check out all the other landmarks as well, such as “Sugar Loaf” or the Maracana stadium, the Copacabana and the Ipanema beaches, the Tijuca forest, which is the biggest urban forest of world, with about 300 varieties of plants and flowers, and of course the favellas.
I have talked about it previously, and for all those who don't know what this is, here is a little explanation, a favella is a form of big neighborhood where people who are extremely poor live, in Brazil. Some call them towns, other just little cities. They have been built back at the end of last century, around 1895, and their instigators used the hills around the main cities of Brazil for their project. They needed places to stay to find work and the favella was providing exactly that. To this day, the Brazilian government is trying everything possible to rehabilitate those areas, but with population of around 3 to 4 millions people, it has been proved an insurmountable tasks. The biggest one is Rocinha, (see photo next week) which I have “visited”, for a few dollars, it has a population of around 500000 souls. People at my hotel tried to dissuade me from doing that, but I have noticed that one of the perks of being a black man, is that in some countries you can go “unnoticed”, so I did.
It was a surreal experience, not because it was great, but because I couldn't believe that in 2006, after having sent a man onto the moon, allegedly, human beings could still be living in such appalling conditions. It made my life back in Manchester, where I could have an “issy fit” for stupid things such as not getting into a crowded clubs on a Saturday, in perspective. They are a “town in the town”, with even things such as little supermarket, doctors offices or even clubs. Of course, the crowd has nothing to do with the “Living Room's”. I talked to one of the “guides” who explained to me that with the huge demand for space nowadays, you couldn't just come and set home in a favella if you don't pay the “entrance fee” of around £100. Just another proof that with the best desire in the world to keep certain things free, capitalism will always prevail; I suppose I don't have to tell you that it is a very dangerous place where people could, sorry, are getting killed in broad daylight… So beware that going to visit such places could potentially be fatal. (especially if you are not a 6ft3 large black man)
After going back to the hotel, it took me a while to realize that I just played with my life somehow, and that I lived to tell the tale. But I didn't let this deter my spirit, Fritz had invited me to lunch later that day with his mother, who was working in a big office complex some miles down my street, 30 actually. This is when I started to realize that Rio, as opposed to other towns which are actually round, squared or octagonal, is in fact a long strip made of little cities stretching itself along the east cost of South America. Which makes it impossible to define, in terms of city center, anywhere could be a city center…
Next time, my first foursome…
